atched the
proceedings of Molly in the dairy with great attention. She had asked
questions about the butter-making until Molly was tired of answering,
and had often begged to be allowed to help. This was never refused,
although Molly opened her eyes wide at the length of time she took to
clean and rinse and scour, and by degrees she was trusted with a good
deal of the work. The day came when she implored to be allowed to do it
all--just for once. Molly hesitated; she had as usual a hundred other
things to do and would be thankful for the help, but was such a bit of a
thing to be trusted? On the whole, from her experience of Lilac she
concluded that she was.

"You won't let on to the missus as how you did it?" she said. And this
being faithfully promised, Lilac was left in quiet possession of the
dairy. She felt almost as excited about that batch of butter as if her
life depended on it. Suppose it should fail? "But there!" she said to
herself, "I won't think of that; I will make it do," and she set to work
courageously. And now her habits of care and neatness and thoroughness
formed in past years came to her service, as well as her close
observation of Molly. Nothing was hurried in the process, every small
detail earnestly attended to, and at last trembling with excitement and
triumph she saw the result of her labours. The butter was a complete
success. As she stood in the cool dark dairy with the firm golden pats
before her, each bearing the sharply-cut impression of the stamp, Lilac
clasped her hands with delight. She had not known such a proud moment
in all her life, except on the day when she had been Queen. And this
was a different sort of pride, for it was joy in her own handiwork--
something she herself had done with no one to help her. "Oh," she said
to herself, "if Mother could but see that, how rare an' pleased she'd
be!" Maybe she did, but how silent it was without her voice to say
"Well done", and how blank without her face to smile on her child's
success.

There was no one to sympathise but Molly, who came in presently with
loud exclamations of surprise.

"So you've got through? Lor'-a-mussy, what a handy little thing it is!
And you won't ever let on to missus or any of 'em?"

Lilac never did "let on." She kept Molly's secret faithfully, and saw
her butter packed up and driven off to Lenham without saying a word.
And from this time forward the making up of the butter, and sometimes
th